Hello, Triangle sports fans. Michael Graff here with a suggestion for your summer:

• Join me in rooting for the Baltimore Orioles. And watch with joy the talents of Cedric Mullins, a Greensboro-born player who went to Louisburg College and Campbell University.

Why it matters: As a lifelong Orioles fan who moved to North Carolina from Maryland at 17, I’m qualified to tell you that we have lots of room on the Baltimore bandwagon.

• One of baseball’s worst teams over the past 20 years, they have MLB’s second-best record in 2023.

The intrigue: They’re young, fast, fearless and fun. They celebrate hits by acting like lawn sprinklers, home runs by slugging water through a funnel, and created a “bird bath” where fans get sprayed.

On the field, Mullins is a blast to watch: He’s ranks in the top 10 in MLB in stolen bases, triples and RBIs.

• On May 12, he hit for the cycle (click for bird bath fun). A week later he had five hits in a game against lesser birds (Blue Jays).
• Not bad for a 5-foot-9 guy who was at the tiny two-year Louisburg in 2014, then batted .340 as a Campbell Camel in 2015, then was drafted in the 13th round, and worked his way up from there.

Baltimore Orioles outfielder and former All-Star Cedric Mullins became the seventh player in franchise history to hit for the cycle, doing so on Friday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Orioles won, 6-3, to move to 25-13 on the season while the loss dropped the Pirates to 21-18.

Mullins singled in the third inning, tripled in the fifth, doubled in the seventh and homered in the eighth. The home run was important because it turned a 3-2 game into a 6-2 game, providing some extra insurance.